"Your software is by far the greatest Chinese learning tool I've seen,
and I am so grateful to you for making available at a reasonable price to
the general public."
—Peter Hammond

"I have been using the program for about 5 months now and I have moved
from knowing a little over 2,000 characters to consistently scoring 3,000
or more on your on-line character test. More importantly I have finally
moved from reading intermediate texts to on-line news I find on the WWW.
Your program has turned out to be an amazing aid. I am now a huge fan!"
—Brent Nelson

Custom Flashcards Applet

The Custom Flashcards applet allows you to test yourself on the vocabulary words included
in selected essays from the Chinese Voices Project. Just select the "Custom List" option
from the Flashcard Set menu below.

This applet is
a simplified version of the more advanced Flashcards tool included with
the Clavis Sinica program, which permits you to create custom flashcard
lists from any text, select between Chinese-English and English-Chinese test
modes, and hear the pronunciation of missed words.

The Chinese Flashcards program is now also available for Palm handhelds
and Treo smartphones, so you can work on building your vocabulary any
time, any place. For details, see our Chinese Flashcards
for Palm page.

If the Flashcards applet does not appear in the space above,
your browser probably does not have the proper version of Java Plug-in
installed. If you have not yet downloaded the plug-in, you can download
it for free by clicking here.

Flashcard Usage Tips

For best results, please note the following suggestions for using the
Chinese Flashcards:

Do not make random guesses. If you don't recognize a character, simply
press the Continue button without entering a response.

When you enter an incorrect response, you'll need to press "Continue"
again to move on to the next character.

If you're not sure of your skill level, begin with the Class I characters.
You should master all the characters in this set before moving on to
Class II.

Improving Your Results

The best way to improve your score and your Chinese reading skills is
to practice reading Chinese texts on a regular basis, make lists of unfamiliar
words and characters, and drill yourself constantly on the new vocabulary
you want to learn. While there is no way to avoid a certain amount of
rote memorization in this process, the Clavis Sinica software can make
it much more efficient and enjoyable. Here are some of the ways Clavis
Sinica can help you learn characters more effectively:

The Clavis text reader window allows
you to display any digitized Chinese text and to access, with a click
of the mouse, the pinyin and definition of any unfamiliar character
and of the word in which it is used. No more time wasted looking up
dozens of characters in a Chinese dictionary to read a single story
or web page!

For any unfamiliar character, you can display a separate character
information window that shows how the character is divided into
its radical and phonetic parts, which can be a big help in remembering
the structure of the character. You can also display lists
of other characters using the same radical or phonetic, so you can
learn each new character in relation to other similar characters that
you already know.

For each character, you can also display a list of compound
words and phrases using that character. This allows you to learn
new characters in the context of words or phrases you may already know.

The program will pronounce any character
for you, helping you to reinforce the connection between the character
and its pinyin and tone.

The program allows you to create customized vocabulary lists of new
words and characters that you've learned. You can save these lists,
print them out for later study, or drill them using the built-in flashcards
tool.

Clavis Sinica's built-in flashcard tool allows you to drill yourself
on groups of radicals, characters, or compounds that you want to learn.
You can use the flashcard sets provided with the program, or create
your own sets based on unfamiliar characters and words found in any
Chinese text.

You can find complete lists of the top 300 and next 800 most frequently
used characters on the Chinese
Text Sampler website. You can print out these lists from your web
browser or download the file in order to study the meaning, structure,
and usage of the characters using Clavis Sinica. The Sampler website also
contains dozens of other Chinese texts you can use for reading practice,
whatever your skill level. All of them can be viewed directly on your
web browser or downloaded for closer study with Clavis Sinica.